Home to Art Basel, the most important contemporary art fair in the world, this northern Switzerland city on the border with France and Germany has a cultural impact that far outweighs Basel’s actual size. The Kunstmuseum Basel, the oldest museum in Switzerland, houses European masterworks that span from Holbein to Picasso, and Schauleger, a museum and institute designed by hometown duo Herzog & de Meuron, contains the stupendous Emmanuel Hoffman Foundation collection of more than 400 modern masterpieces from the likes of Cindy Sherman and Richard Tuttle.

In the St Johann neighbourhood, the pharmaceutical giant Novartis has a campus with 17 buildings either built or under construction from a star lineup of the most famous architects in the world, such as Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhaas and of course, Herzog & de Meuron. “For a relatively small town, Basel has an incomparably high amount of quality cultural events,” said Davy Hess, managing director at Engel & Völkers Basel.

The housing market has also been very robust for the past four years, in part because of low interest rates and the large number of foreigners relocating to the city. “The market is a seller’s market and demand is much higher than supply,” Hess explained. The most popular districts include the residential St Alban quarter near the Old Town and the leafy Gellertquartier near the Rhine River. “These areas are the most charming areas in Basel, with townhouses and villas from the early 1900s,” Hess said. Farther out, desirable areas include the districts of Bruderholz and Binningen, located south of the Old Town; the municipality of Riehen across the Rhine; as well as the village of Arlesheim, south of the city. Apartment prices across Basel range from 4,000 Swiss francs per square metre for an average property to 12,000 Swiss francs per square metre for a prime location such as St Alban. House prices across the city range from 800,000 Swiss francs per square metre to 3.4 million Swiss francs per square metre. A two-bedroom flat in the Gellertquartier rents around 1,500 to 2,500 Swiss francs a month.